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GORA KADAN Hakone, Kanagawa

The Eden-like intimacy of bathing among the trees and forests of bamboo where pine alone bear witness. A gentle massage with the purest of aromatic plant oils. Shiatsu or Swedish-trained fingers kneading meridians, opening channels of potential energy, slipping from hot, hot waters to open-air baths—a relief, a release, a spa as the sophisticated and the over-scheduled have come to know and appreciate. Welcome to Gora Kadan.

A member of the exemplary Relais & Chateaux group, Gora Kadan knows how to please guests with the most exacting standards. Set in onsen-rich Hakone National Park, Gora Kadan was originally a resort house for relatives of the Imperial family. In 1952 it became a public ryokan, and in 1989, its main building, a luxurious triumph of bamboo, stone, tile and native woods, was built by a series of prominent architects. Its spa, called Kako, or “Fragrance of Flowers,” is housed in a traditional Japanese villa and provides facials, revitalizing cellular body treatments using Swiss herbs, and therapies using salt from the Dead Sea. The inn’s chief of guest relations greets guests by name and unobtrusively reminds visiting foreigners of ryokan rites and wrongs.

All of the 37 rooms come with unique bathrooms en suite and mini-bars, and seven rooms have private rotenburo. There are two onsen and two rotenburo for communal use. The rooms are grand in size, serene in lighting, minimalist in design. Some rooms have low tatami beds; some are pure Japanese with futon, low tables for dining and thin seat cushions (zabuton). There is a sky-lit heated indoor swimming pool long enough for many a lap, a Jacuzzi, fitness center, sun deck, conference room, reading room and karaoke bar. The 10- or 11-course feast that is dinner can be taken in one’s room or in a private dining room. Coffee and newspaper are room-delivered along with Japanese breakfast overlooking lawns and trees of green.

The dramatic entrance to Gora Kadan.

The heated year-round swimming pool.

Tranquil garden views from a guest room.

The simple guest rooms offer luxurious comfort to guests.

Common hot spring bathing area.

The town of Gora is approximately 60 miles southwest of Tokyo, a 40-minute Shinkansen ride to Odawara, then a 30-minute drive through the mountains to Gora. This is a very active volcanic area— and here and there steam holes spew sulfur mists. Mount Fuji is nearby. People come to play golf, go fishing or boating on Lake Ashi, hike in the hills of the less famous surrounding mountains, Mount Myojogatake, Mount Sengen and Mount Komagatake (which has a cable car service). The famous Hakone Open-Air Museum featuring the sculptures of Picasso and Henry Moore, among others, is only minutes away, as are several other museums of interest.

Down a stone path, amidst maples red and green, here is a balance of Eastern and Western understanding of the many nuances of the concept, “spa.”

Address: 1300 Gora, Hakonemachi, Ashigarashimo-gun, Kanagawa-ken 250-0408, Japan.

Tel: 81 (0)460 2 3331.

Fax: 81 (0)460 2 3334.

Website: www.gorakadan.com. E-mail: info@gorakadan.com. Rooms: 37. Access: 40 min from Tokyo to Odawara Station by Tokaido Shinkansen and 30 min drive to Gora by taxi.

Corridor leading to the guest rooms.

A treatment room in the spa.

SENKYORO Hakone, Kanagawa

The humbling fragility and power and colors and textures of nature are everywhere to behold. Swaying pampas grass in winds of autumn, mauve wisteria, popping pink azaleas, elegant stands of bamboo, the volcanic drama of Mt. Fuji, the blue-gray splendor of Lake Ashi.

Senkyoro is ideally located in the heart of Hakone’s numerous natural and artistic attractions. The Hakone Botanical Gardens are within walking distance. Art works by Chagall, Monet, Van Gogh and Renoir, along with collections of glasswork, modern Japanese ceramics and Edo-and Meiji-era cosmetic accessories are all on view at the nearby Pola Museum of Art. The Hakone Open Air Museum, Venetian Glass Museum, Museum of Saint-Exupery and the Little Prince, not to mention 3D Space Dinosaur World are all within a short drive.

Senkyoro’s owners, the Ishimuras, are fourth generation innkeepers, and Asayo Ishimura is Senkyoro’s current okami, hostess extraordinaire. Depending on the season, the 41 guest rooms offer views of fiery autumn red and rust, wintry snow white, spring camellia or cherry pink. The six guest rooms in the new wing, opened in 2005, are the rooms of choice, traditional Japanese in style, each with its own private rotenburo and indoor Jacuzzi. A male and a female communal rotenburo and a male and female indoor onsen are available for all guests, as well as three kazukoburo. With a pH of 2.9, the high acidity of the mineral spring waters is particularly beneficial for healing.

The gate to Senkyoro’s new wing.

View of the Okuno Kigi guest room.

Hot springs in the front garden.

A view of the garden from a private hot spring bath area.

Corridor leading to the guest rooms.

The common hot spring bathing area.

Guests are served tea and hot towels soon after they check in.

Appetizers served before dinner.

For the past 135 years, Senkyoro’s white sulfur waters with mountain and forest views have attracted guests from the political arena as well as the kabuki theater. Senkyoro has also been a haven for those interested in learning more about the process of creating ceramics. Guests can mould and shape moist clay in private classes taught at the pottery wheels of the inn’s sizeable ceramics studio. A pottery master comes from the famous ceramics town of Seto. For an additional charge, students can make a plate or two teacups, yunomijawan.

In a variety of ceramic, lacquer and crystal vessels, dinner and breakfast, artistic presentations of mushrooms, miso, gingko, beef and shrimp, are served in guests’ rooms.

There is a decorative mix of tatami and low lacquer tables, polished wood floors, Queen Anne furniture, a stone fireplace of dancing flames, picture windows making ever-changing outdoor scenes tableau vivant.

English is spoken here. Ask about nearby golfing, local walks and hikes. White bush clover or frilly lilies may be in bloom in this otherworldly realm, Senkyoro.

Address: 1284 Sengokubara, Hakonemachi, Kanagawa-ken 250-0631, Japan.

Tel: 81 (0)460 4 8521.

Fax: 81 (0)460 4 9158.

Website: www.senkyoro.co.jp. E-mail: info@senkyoro.co.jp. Rooms: 41. Access: 40 min from Tokyo to Odawara station by JR Tokaido Shinkansen, 50 min to Togendai by bus or taxi, 5 min walk to Senkyoro. 1 hr from Tokyo to Gotenba IC by car on Tomei Highway, 15 min to Senkyoro on Otome road

The Ikemi-dai guest room.

TSUBAKI Yugawara, Kanagawa

Camellias in December, plum blossoms in February, cherry in April, and the music of a mountain stream all year round. Tsubaki is the Japanese word for “camellia,” and on the grounds of this gourmet-restaurant-turned-inn, there are as many as 1,500 lush red and pink camellia trees.

Less than two hours south of Tokyo by train or car, Yugawara and Oku-Yugawara Onsen have been popular destinations since the eighth century. Its thermal waters and relative proximity to Tokyo made it a sensible setting for treating wounded soldiers during the Sino–Japanese War in 1894 and the Russo–Japanese War of 1904. In the 1920s, numerous inns and private besso (“villas”) were built in this area. Acclaimed Japanese writers, painters and movie producers have made Yugawara their place for creative retreat. Here in this place of peace Taikan Yokoyama painted images of Mount Fuji.

Tsubaki first opened about 25 years ago and is a cherished rest stop known for its exceptional cuisine. The emphasis here is on dining with attentiveness, savoring flavors, making a long evening of kaiseki fare with Kyoto flair. Upon arrival, guests are presented with warm towels, fragrant green tea and a little sweet, perhaps, a yokan or azuki bean jelly. Dinner and breakfast are served in guests’ rooms overlooking ponds fed by mountain streams and forests of beech and maple and bamboo.

Tsubaki offers tranquil garden views.

View from one of the deluxe gest rooms.

The parade of delicacies called kaiseki ryori comes from the ancient “slow” food origins of the tea ceremony. Each dish is a work of mastery—to see, to smell, to taste. A clear soy broth with floating carrot and fish cake is served in a demure bowl of lacquer. Marinated raw oysters and squid are served on the half shell and in vessels of lime rind. An unusual ceramic piece presents sashimi of maguru and squid with an artistic grace note of shredded daikon.

A private rotenburo.

One of the light, refreshing meals served to guests.

Some dishes are so artistically presented that it seems aggressive to destroy their delicate beauty for the indulgence of a tempting bite. The chefs of Tsubaki take such pride in presenting a joyous meal that they will even accommodate guests’ possible aversions or allergies. If the thought of some of the freshest tuna sashimi in all of Japan does not make your mouth water, grilled fish or meat can be substituted upon request. There is also a banquet room for entertaining business colleagues or clients.

All 29 rooms are in the Sukiya style of a Japanese tea-ceremony house, latticework shoji paper doors slide open and close along a corridor. Two rooms have private rotenburo. There are also two indoor spring baths and two outdoor baths.

With tangerine orchards and Pacific Ocean views nearby, this is a fond area for hiking. Take a walk in the woods, then, in a garden of pink, enlighten your taste buds.

Address: Oku-Yugawara, Yugawaracho, Ashigarashimo-gun, Kanagawaken 259-0314, Japan.

Tel: 81 (0)465 63 3333.

Fax: 81 (0)465 63 6640.

Website: www.tsubaki.net. E-mail: kaiseki@tsubaki.net. Rooms: 29. Access: 50 min from Tokyo to Atami Station by Tokaido Shinkansen and 10 min to Tsubaki by taxi, or 2 hrs drive from Tokyo to Oku-Yugawara through Tomei Kosoku, Odawara-Atsugi Doro and Manazuru-Doro.

Shoji screens mark the space between a corridor and the courtyard.

The banquet room.

Common rotenburo bath area.

ATAMI SEKITEI Atami, Izu Peninsula

Rock and stones exalted. It is said that the beauty of a flower or a tree is quite easy to see and understand. Yet the exquisite nature of a stone requires a state of inner peace. Sekitei is a stone pavilion, and this ryokan set in a quiet residential neighborhood of fragile pink weeping cherry blossoms, golden fields of rape and bows of acorn-dotted pine trees overlooking Atami Bay honors stone as sculpture, as protector, as mighty foundation.

This onsen area, a mere 60 miles southwest of Tokyo, less than an hour by bullet train, has long been a favorite weekend refuge for businessmen and families. Atami translates as “hot sea,” and a tale is told that a geyser used to rain hot waters into the sea, killing fishermen’s harvest and endangering their livelihood. Thanks to the prayers of a Buddhist monk, the geyser moved into shore and Atami became famous as a source of hot spring waters.

Originally built in 1952 as an exclusive club of villas with private chefs, Atami Sekitei is now affiliated with the leading South Asian resort chain, the Banyan Tree Group. Every year Japan’s Master Go Tournament is held here. Many of Atami Sekitei’s 29 rooms have views of a pond colorfully swirling with orange and white carp. Sakuragaoka-Saryo (“Teahouse on Cherry Blossom Hill”) is an annex of the original 10 rooms, all with private hot spring baths. From these rooms it is possible to watch the weekend performances of geisha spinning parasols and dancing on a Noh stage set in the garden. Artistically arranged trays and platters of kaiseki delicacies are served in guests’ rooms. A broth of enoki mushrooms, young bamboo shoots, sweet ginger and finely cut egg cake is served in a gold and China red lacquer bowl. Lobster, sea bream and tuna are features of the sashimi course. A little basket might arrive with fine slivers of lotus root, a few pods of edamame, and a gingko nut under the frilly shade of tiny maple leaves.

Geishas performing a dance.

A bamboo garden provides a quiet area for guests.

This rock garden doubles as a footpath.

An open courtyard located in the compound.

Private rotenburo.

Room used for—shogi a traditional Japanese game.

Alcove area in a guest room.

The mineral waters of Atami attract, but there is also the Atami Castle and the Mokichi Okada Association (MOA) Art Museum to visit. The museum overlooks Atami Bay and houses the rich collection of Mokichi Okada, founder of the World Church of Messianity. In a dramatic modern complex, there are ceramics, lacquerware, a cherished tea jar by Edo artist Ninsei, a screen of “Red and White Plum Trees” by Korin Ogata, woodblock prints by Hiroshige and Hokusai among a collection of 3,500 pieces, only 200 of which are on view at any time. Collector Okada believed that it was “spiritually elevating” to view great art in an “ideal natural setting.”

Atami Sekitei displays nature as art.

Address: 6-17 Wada-cho, Atami-shi, Shizuoka-ken 413-0024, Japan.

Tel: 81 (0)557 83 2841.

Fax: 81 (0)557 82 2840.

Website: www.sekitei.co.jp. E-mail: sekitei@sekitei.co.jp. Rooms: Sekitei 29, Sakuragaoka-Saryo 10. Access: 50 min from Tokyo to Atami Station by Tokaido Shinkansen and 5 min to Sekitei by taxi.

KONA BESSO Izu-Nagaoka, Izu Peninsula

Stepping-stones slow life’s pace. With each stone comes a fresh perspective. Treasuring a moment, a view, a taste, a sensation is what this old-world weekend retreat, Kona Besso, is all about.

For hundreds of years the hot springs in this area of the Izu Peninsula, south of Mount Fuji, have attracted big-city dwellers seeking a cosseting and a release from day-to-day striving. Kona Onsen was founded 1,300 years ago and eventually combined with the waters of Nagaoka Onsen to create the source that now feeds Izu-Nagaoka, a small onsen town of 15,000 people.

In the late 1930s, Kona Besso was built as the second home of a Tokyo entrepreneur. It is set in a quiet residential area, about oneand-a-half hours from Tokyo by Shinkansen and then car ride from Mishima Station. To this day Kona Besso gives the comforting feeling that one is entering a private domain.